New employment law amendments

Attorney Fajer Ahmed

I know I have written about it previously, but I have been receiving a lot of questions about the new July 9 employment amendments. The new amendments were made in order to close loopholes that were existent, and unfortunately it is still unclear what these changes are (as I will explain below).

The law has also failed in some sense to balance the relationship between the employer and the employee. With that said, I think it is great that the Kuwaiti government and parliament members have considered amending the employment law in Kuwait, bringing about change that is essential.

In English

Question: Can you please provide us a copy of the amendments to the law in English?

Fajer: The law has been printed in Arabic in the official Kuwaiti gazette and it has not been printed or translated in English officially. Unfortunately, Kuwait employment laws have never been translated to English. If you want the Arabic copy, you can find it in the July 9 print edition of the gazette.

Saturday

Question: Is Saturday now an official holiday?

Fajer: No, Saturday is not yet an official holiday. Friday is an official holiday, but the new law did mention that “weekends” are not to be deducted from the annual leave, but it is not clear what day the weekend refers to. Since the law is not clear, we have yet to understand or predict what a judge might rule in this situation, as there are multiple interpretations.

Indemnity

Question: I left my job last March of 2016, and I still have not received my termination indemnity. Every time I ask for my end of service benefits, I am told to come back in a few months. It has been a year and four months already, and I am worried, because I heard that you only have one year to ask for your termination indemnity should you leave your job. Is this true?

Fajer: First of all, I would like to explain what the term statute of limitation is – it is a limitation for bringing of action of a certain kind. This usually is for a time period, and in this example for the employment law, the statute of limitation is one year from the last date of work, which means you lose the right to ask for any benefits after one year of leaving your job. To make things even more clear, it is not a year from the day of transferring your visa or receiving your salary, but it is of actually leaving work.

Should you have any questions or concerns, or you require a consultation, please email me at ask@fajerthelawyer.com.